A feeble mewling pierced the darkness.
Lily tried to ignore it, she really did. She wanted nothing more than for it all to end, for the darkness to take her away from everything.
But she couldn't.
Slowly, everything came into focus. The rubble and the splintered cot lay, broken and forlorn, under a deep blue sky, shot with hot pinks and gentle golds. Dawn was coming. How was she alive? Had she been knocked unconscious? The last thing she remembered was two words and a flash of green light. The Killing Curse. Voldemort. It was all rushing back to her. Trapped. James dead…
"HARRY!"
Her heart skipped a beat as she remembered her young son. When she had been attacked, he would have been completely alone, defenceless against the might of Voldemort. How could a baby have survived that?
Desperately, she scanned the rubble, but there was nothing there. Panicking now, Lily got down on her knees and tried to shift some of the debris. Her hands passed through the rock, like smoke.
For a moment, Lily just stared at her hand blankly. And then she realised. She was a ghost. Voldemort had killed her. Her first reaction was of despair - if she was a ghost then she was going to live forever knowing that she had failed her family. Then, hope. Eternity was long enough to get her revenge. If it took a thousand years, she would bring about Voldemort's death.
Oh, Harry, she thought, tears pouring down her face. What have I done?
And then she heard it again, the noise that had brought her back. The noise that she had forgotten until this moment. A feeble, gurgling cry.
Her heart leapt with joy. It was Harry, she knew it. He was alive. How didn't matter, just the plain and simple fact was enough.
The sound had come from a few feet away. Scrambling over to where she had heard the noise, Lily realised that even if she could find Harry, there was nothing she could do to heal him. In all her living years, she had never heard of a ghost performing magic. But luckily, Harry was barely hurt at all. No bruises or scratches or broken limbs - just a lightning shaped slash across his forehead. Merely looking at it told Lily that it would scar.
But the thing that troubled Lily was how. How had Harry survived? If only she could have seen what had happened. She could imagine Voldemort standing over him, wand outstretched… but then what? What had protected Harry from Voldemort's powers? And more importantly, where was Voldemort now?
Lily knew that only extremely strong magic could shield against the Killing Curse, so, desperately, she racked her memory for anything to do with protective charms. Protego, of course, was the most obvious choice of shield, but that wouldn't stand against Voldemort. The Fidelius was a powerful protective charm, but that protected places not people…
Her mind went back to a hot summer's day, near the end of her seventh year at Hogwarts. She was meant to be revising for her NEWT which was coming up in two weeks, but the heat made it near impossible to concentrate.
"Now," Professor Flitwick, standing on a pile of cushions, squeaked. "As you know, we have recently been studying old magic - magic which can be performed without a wand and has been around far longer than you or I. So far we have done the Power of Smiling and Positive Thought and the Art of the Silvertongue. Some of you believe that old magic is weak and it's effects are small. You are wrong. The final branch is arguably the most powerful branch of magic known to wizard kind. The Power of Love. Now this probably won't come up in your NEWT but it is good to be well prepared."
The moment Professor Flitwick had said that it probably wouldn't come up in their NEWT, everybody's attention except Lily's returned to looking out of the window at a dozen first years who were feeding the Giant Squid breadcrumbs in the sunshine.
"The Power of Love, or sacrificial protection, is the most powerful protective charm a wizard can perform," Professor Flitwick began. "When performed correctly, it can protect it's target from poisons, blades and even the Killing Curse itself. Performing it correctly is the difficult part - in fact, in can only be performed under very specific circumstances.
"To perform the charm, you give your life for the person that you wish to protect. But it must be a person you love and you must have a choice as to whether or not you die. Also, the person you die to protect must live with a blood relative until the age of seventeen, or the charm will not work. By choosing to die, you place a special mark on the person that you wish to protect - this mark is what protects them from any dangers that they may encounter.
"Sacrificial Protection can be made useless in two ways - the person moves out of said relatives home or they turn seventeen, the wizarding age of majority. Now, lets get back to revising the aguamenti charm. Belby, I know you can't yet produce a clear fountain and the examiners will look for that specifically."
Lily came back to the present with a startling sense of clarity. Could it have been the Power of Love that had spared Harry from Voldemort? As far as she could tell, their circumstances matched the necessary ones. She loved Harry. Had she had a choice as to whether or not she was to die? "Stand aside…", she remembered Voldemort saying. She had had a choice whether she had lived or died. But why? Why would he not want her, Lily Potter, one of his enemies, to be killed? Mentally, she added that question to her "Must find out" pile and looked at the other criteria. Harry had lived with her and James for his entire life. But for the protection to last, Harry would have to live with Petunia and her husband; she couldn't imagine a worse place for her son to grow up. Grudgingly, she had to admit that Harry's safety was more important.
Now that she had the matter of Harry's survival cleared up, she knew that he would need help. Dumbledore should already be here - in case Voldemort had attacked them, he had placed a charm on the house which informed him if it was broken into.
But where was he?
Just when Lily was about to go and alert Bathilda, her prayers were answered. She heard a small pop! and then, suddenly, the giant form of Rubeus Hagrid appeared before her.
"Hagrid!" Lily gasped. "Harry… He's over there!"
Hagrid ignored her, his face pouring with tears.
"James," he said, his voice wobbling. "Lily!"
He burst into sobs.
After a minute, he calmed down, and raised his pink umbrella.
"Homenum Revelio!" he muttered.
Barely a second later, Harry began to blaze with a bright white light, drawing Hagrid's attention to him.
"Oh, thank God," Hagrid said, relieved. "Thank God!"
Fumbling about in his pocket, Hagrid strode over to Lily's baby and scooped him up in his arms.
"There, there, baby 'Arry," he said putting a dummy into Harry's mouth. "You're safe!"
Harry, who had been on the verge of crying when Hagrid had picked him up, calmed at these words, and looked up into the giant's face. Lily was astounded to see him so calm.
At that moment, Lily heard a low rumbling, a rumbling that was familiar. It was a sound she had heard many times before, a sound which heralded… Sirius!
It came out of nowhere, his motorbike, just dropping out of the sky and pulling up in front of Hagrid.
"Hagrid!" Sirius exclaimed, jumping from the motorbike. "What's happened? I just went to see Peter, but he was gone."
"James," Hagrid sobbed. "Lily… Dead!"
"No!" Sirius cried, shaking his head furiously. He looked exactly how Lily would imagine someone would look like after a Dementor's Kiss. Immediately, his face turned ashen grey, his eyes seemed to lose their sparkle. It was like his mind and soul was dead but his body still living, still going though his best friends were dead. This was the first of many times that she wished she could touch. Sirius could do with a hug, and all of her maternal instincts cried out as she watched him weep. But her body was gone, destroyed, and she would never be able to hug anyone ever again.
"It's alrigh'," Hagrid said reassuringly. "Baby 'Arry survived, didn' 'e?"
Sirius calmed down, and looked up at Hagrid, his face wet with tears. Seeing Harry, his jaw set in determination.
"You're right, Hagrid," he agreed. "Give Harry to me. He's my godson, I'll look after him from now on."
"I don' think I can, Sirius," Hagrid explained. "Y'see, Dumbledore wants me to bring 'Arry to 'im. And he'll be safer with Dumbledore as well. I'm sure once everything's cleared up, 'e will go t'you."
"Yes, you're right again, Hagrid," Sirius said, realisation dawning in his eyes. "Take my motorbike, take Harry to Dumbledore, I won't be needing it anymore. There's something far more important for me to do."
"Don' you go doin' anythin' silly, now, will yeh?"
"No, of course not. Now get going! I'm sure Dumbledore is waiting!"
Sirius Apparated then, his expression grim.
Carrying her baby son in his arms, Hagrid mounted Sirius' motorbike and kicked off from the ground, flying east, towards the rising sun.
Lily, giving her ruined home one final look, followed.